128 AHL alumni on World Cup rosters

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … With the 2016 World Cup of Hockey getting underway today, 128 former and current American Hockey League players have been selected to participate in the two-week tournament.

Each of the eight participating teams has no fewer than a dozen AHL alumni on its 23-man roster, with Team Europe leading the way with 19. The United States and Finland have 18 graduates each; the Czech Republic has 17; Canada and Sweden show 15 each; Team North America has 14 AHL alumni and Russia has 12. The complete list of alumni is below.

Sixteen World Cup players skated in the AHL during the 2015-16 season, including 2016 Second Team AHL All-Star and eventual Stanley Cup champion Matt Murray (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) and 2016 NHL All-Rookie Team selections Shayne Gostisbehere (Lehigh Valley) and John Gibson (San Diego) of Team North America, as well as 2016 AHL All-Star Esa Lindell (Texas) of Finland.

AHL experience will be found behind Olympic benches as well, including current Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach Scott Gordon serving as an assistant for the United States. Additionally, 13 former AHL head coaches are working in the tournament: Canada head coach Mike Babcock and assistants Claude Julien, Bill Peters, Joel Quenneville and Barry Trotz; Europe assistants Paul Maurice and Brad Shaw; North America head coach Todd McLellan and assistant Jon Cooper; and Team USA head coach John Tortorella and assistants Jack Capuano, John Hynes and Mike Sullivan.

In operation since 1936, the AHL continues to serve as the top development league for all 30 National Hockey League teams. More than 88 percent of today’s NHL players are American Hockey League graduates, and more than 100 honored members of the Hockey Hall of Fame spent time in the AHL in their careers. In 2015-16, over 7.1 million fans attended AHL regular-season and playoff games across North America, the highest total attendance in league history.